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arXiv:2607.04659

Krylov complexity, mode-resolved complexity and entanglement entropy across phase transitions in the non-Hermitian extended Su-Schrieffer-Heeger model

Ling-Feng Zhang, Wing Chi Yu

quant-phcond-mat.mes-hallcond-mat.str-elSubmitted Jul 6, 2026• Announced Jul 7, 2026• 0 citations
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Abstract

We investigate phase transitions in the extended Su-Schrieffer-Heeger (SSH) model with next-nearest-neighbor hoppings and an imaginary staggered chemical potential. In the presence of small non-Hermiticity, exceptional points emerge in pairs from the gap-closing momenta near the topological phase boundaries of the Hermitian limit. Utilizing the Krylov spread complexity and entanglement entropy, we analyze two dynamical protocols: (i) preparing the non-Hermitian ground state via a unitary transformation, and (ii) evolving the system under the non-Hermitian Hamiltonian. We show that the spread complexity, and long-time spread complexity as well as entanglement entropy can effectively signal phase transitions in the first and second protocols, respectively. To unravel the detailed structure of the transitions, we introduce the momentum-resolved complexity that identifies the characteristic modes and tracks their evolution with the driving parameter. In the regime where the system possesses a purely imaginary spectrum, we further identify dynamical phases based on the saturation behavior of the spread complexity. The entanglement entropy is also found to exhibit similar saturation behavior, thereby providing a more experimentally accessible probe of the dynamical phases.

Comments
15 pages, 8 figures

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We investigate phase transitions in the extended Su-Schrieffer-Heeger (SSH) model with next-nearest-neighbor hoppings and an imaginary staggered chemical potential. In the presence of small non-Hermiticity, exceptional points emerge in pairs from the gap-closing momenta near the topological phase boundaries of the Hermitian limit. Utilizing the Krylov spread complexity and entanglement entropy, we analyze two dynamical protocols: (i) preparing the non-Hermitian ground state via a unitary transformation, and (ii) evolving the system under the non-Hermitian Hamiltonian. We show that the spread complexity, and long-time spread complexity as well as entanglement entropy can effectively signal phase transitions in the first and second protocols, respectively. To unravel the detailed structure of the transitions, we introduce the momentum-resolved complexity that identifies the characteristic modes and tracks their evolution with the driving parameter. In the regime where the system possesses a purely imaginary spectrum, we further identify dynamical phases based on the saturation behavior of the spread complexity. The entanglement entropy is also found to exhibit similar saturation behavior, thereby providing a more experimentally accessible probe of the dynamical phases.
We investigate quantum correlations and entanglement in a non-Hermitian quantum system modeled by a 2D stacked Su–Schrieffer–Heeger (SSH) lattice incorporating nonreciprocal hopping amplitudes and balanced on-site gain and loss. Focusing on the interplay between non-Hermiticity, topology, and open-boundary conditions, we analyze how these factors shape bipartite entanglement properties, characterized through the entanglement spectrum and entanglement negativity ( E N ). By examining the complex energy spectrum under open boundary conditions, we identify critical points associated with the closing of complex energy gaps, which significantly influence entanglement structure and signal topological phase transitions. Our findings reveal that boundary-localized non-Bloch modes and nonreciprocal couplings can induce highly tunable and unconventional entanglement features, absent under periodic boundary conditions. These results highlight the breakdown of conventional bulk-boundary correspondence and underscore the utility of entanglement measures in diagnosing non-Hermitian topological phases. Beyond advancing the fundamental understanding of quantum correlations in open systems, our study suggests potential pathways to engineer quantum devices and topological materials where gain, loss, and nonreciprocity are intrinsic elements.
A bstract In this paper, we investigate the dynamics of a non-Hermitian Su-Schrieffer-Heeger model that arises out of the no-click limit of a monitored SSH model in the Krylov space. We find that the saturation timescale of the complexity associated with the spread of the state in the Krylov subspace increases with the measurement rate, and late time behaviour differs across the PT symmetry transition point. Furthermore, extending the notion of this complexity for subsystems in Krylov space, we find that the scaling of its late time value with subsystem size shows a discontinuous jump across the PT transition point, indicating that it can be used as a suitable order parameter for such transition but not for the measurement-induced transition. Finally, we show that a generalized measure in the Krylov subspace, which contains information about the correlation landscape, such as Quantum Fisher information, which also possesses some structural similarity with the complexity functional, can be a promising probe of the measurement-induced phase.
The entanglement entropy can be an effective diagnostic tool for probing topological phase transitions. In one-dimensional single particle systems, the periodic driving generates a variety of topological phases and edge modes. In this work, we investigate the topological phase transition of the one-dimensional Floquet Su-Schrieffer-Heeger model using entanglement entropy, and construct the phase diagram based on entanglement entropy. The entanglement entropy exhibits pronounced peaks and follows the logarithmic scaling law at the phase transition points, from which we extract the central charge c=1c=1c=1. We further investigate the entanglement spectrum to accurately distinguish the different topological phases. In addition, the coupling between zero and πππ modes leads to characteristic splittings in the entanglement spectrum, signaling their hybridization under periodic driving. These results remain robust in non-Hermitian regimes and in the presence of next-nearest-neighbor hopping, demonstrating the reliability and universality of entanglement entropy as a diagnostic for topological phase transitions.
Topological phase transitions are found in a variety of systems and were shown to be deeply related with a thermodynamic description through scaling relations. Here we investigate the entanglement entropy, which is a quantity that captures the central charge of a critical model and the thermodynamics of the nonreciprocal Su-Schrieffer-Heeger (SSH) model. Although this model has been widely studied, the thermodynamic properties reveal interesting physics not explored so far. In order to analyze the boundary effects of the model, we use Hill's thermodynamics to split the grand potential in two contributions: the extensive one, related to the bulk, and the subdivision one, related to the boundaries. Then, we derive the thermodynamic entropy for both the edges and the bulk, and the heat capacity for the bulk at the topological phase transitions. The latter is related to the central charge when the underlying theory is a conformal field theory, whereas the first reveals the resilience of the topological edge states to finite temperatures. The phase transition between phases that are adiabatically connected with the Hermitian SSH model display the well-known behavior of systems within the Dirac universality class, but the transition between phases with complex energies shows an unexpected critical behavior that signals the emergence of an imaginary time crystal.
Abstract Entanglement Hamiltonians provide the most comprehensive characterisation of entanglement in extended quantum systems. A key result in unitary quantum field theories is the Bisognano-Wichmann theorem, which establishes the locality of the entanglement Hamiltonian. In this work, our focus is on the non-Hermitian Su-Schrieffer-Heeger (SSH) chain. We study the entanglement Hamiltonian both in a gapped phase and at criticality. In the gapped phase we find that the lattice entanglement Hamiltonian is compatible with a lattice Bisognano-Wichmann result, with an entanglement temperature linear in the lattice index. At the critical point, we identify a new imaginary chemical potential term absent in unitary models. This operator is responsible for the negative entanglement entropy observed in the non-Hermitian SSH chain at criticality.
We investigate Krylov spread complexity for the ground state of two-band Hamiltonians, where the reference state is a generic state on the Bloch sphere. The spread complexity is obtained by using a purely geometric formulation in terms of Bloch sphere data without constructing the circuit Hamiltonian. For generic reference states, the derivative of the spread complexity is logarithmically divergent at the topological phase transition in the Su-Schrieffer-Heeger (SSH) model. We demonstrate that the derivative of the spread complexity is bounded by fidelity susceptibility for general two-band models, indicating the sensitivity of the spread complexity to any gap closing (topological or trivial). This is illustrated in the massive Dirac Hamiltonian with a trivial gap closing. Finally, we introduce a non-unitary duality in the SSH model between the topological and trivial phases, which manifests itself in the spread complexity and fidelity susceptibility.